Drupal (according to their website) is “an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications.” I’m going to glaze over the part where I explain what that means because I have no idea, but I do know that their logo, affectionately dubbed the Druplicon, is pretty cute.

I’m not sure exactly why Quinn would want to applique it, though, but here at CraftFail we’re glad she did.

On the Food Network, where pretty much any recipe appears to be possible, you’ll find a recipe for this rainbow layer cake and instructions for how to cover it in sprinkles.

Spoiler alert: Much to my surprise, their method for covering a cake with sprinkles is *not* “Throw sprinkles hastily at cake from across the kitchen as your birthday party guests begin to arrive.” Well excuuuuuuuse me, fancypants.

I guess Instagrammer @mackenz_o found it to be slightly more challenging than she expected, too.

A photo posted by mackenzie (@mackenz_o) on Mar 22, 2015 at 10:09pm PDT

That’s… That’s just… That’s just not even close! It looks like a cake mated with the mushroom cloud from an atomic blast. And even though quite a bit of the frosting seems to have oozed off to show us what I can only assume is cake underneath, I can’t quite make out any layers at all, rainbow or not. But she’s definitely right, it’s the thought that counts! Not to mention the time investment – those eleventy billion hours count for something, for sure!

In an article containing great ways to make your kid feel special on his birthday, The House of Hendrix highlights this idea from the (no longer online) Sidetracked Mom. Basically you strap a ton of balloons to your child’s closed bedroom door with crepe paper. When they wake up and open the door, they’re showered with balloons! FUN!

I considered doing this for my son’s 13th birthday today, but luckily (before I hyperventilated blowing up 500 balloons) I remembered that his room is in the basement now. A surprise balloon avalanche at the top of the basement stairs is less, “WHEEE, fun!” and more like, “WHEEE-DOO WHEEE-DOO WHEEE-DOO – oh good I hear the ambulance coming.”

But even if you don’t accidentally send your kids pinwheeling backwards down the basement steps in the face of a birthday balloon onslaught, other things can go wrong as Instagrammer @hannalee_23 so perfectly illustrates.

Look, we love Pinterest as much as the next craft/food/fashion-obsessed person does, but faithful readers of CraftFail (and people who have ever actually visited Pinterest) know that the recipes you find there almost always claim to be “easy,” and that they almost NEVER ARE.

Take my own personal meaty brownie roll cake, for example. A simple brownie rolled up with ice cream and peanut butter filling – the appearance of which my own mother described as “two armadillos in a snowstorm.”

Not. Easy.

But over on NickMom, we found a whole list of “easy” Pinterest recipes that aren’t even worth trying for various reasons, such as:

Or maybe:

Yes, we couldn’t agree more. Check out the rest of these “easy” Pinterest recipes and tell us – ARE ANY OF THESE EVEN POSSIBLE? Seriously, we’d like to know.

OMG that looks so gross – but don’t worry, you can eat it! ISN’T THAT GREAT NEWS?

kiffakitty shares this brain cake tutorial via Instructables, and while the cake itself is exactly as freaky as it looks, the steps to make it aren’t as hard as you might think. She even shares how to make your own fondant, which we CraftFailers know from experience can be tricky to use.

Reader Teri’s husband decided to give it a try, which she shared with us on CraftFail’s Facebook page…

Not exactly like the original, but considering it couldn’t POSSIBLY be nastier looking that the inspiration cake, I’d call it a win. He even included eyeballs and a red, bulbous nose – now that’s using your head! (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

For more freakiness that might make you slightly uncomfortable but will make you laugh anyway, head on over to Robyn’s usual home at Hollow Tree Ventures!

]]>http://craftfail.com/2015/03/this-is-your-brain-on-cake/feed/0Leprechaun Pudding Potatoeshttp://craftfail.com/2015/03/leprechaun-pudding-potatoes/
http://craftfail.com/2015/03/leprechaun-pudding-potatoes/#commentsWed, 18 Mar 2015 15:00:06 +0000http://craftfail.com/?p=7728Read More »]]>St. Patrick’s Day is a great time for fun green treats, like this Leprechaun Pudding found on 24/7 Moms. It’s basically just vanilla pudding mixed with food coloring, but kids will eat it right up (in more ways than one)!

Repeat craftfailer Anna of Random Handprints went one better, telling us, “…instead of using store-bought pudding I said, ‘No my kids deserve healthy homemade pudding! I will make it myself!'”
“It’s blancmange, which I thought was pudding, but it’s really pudding that has the consistency of custard,” she explains. “The kids were supposed to *smoothly* mix in blue and yellow [food coloring] and turn the pudding green, but instead well… this.”

*This* being some buttery, sour cream and chive St. Patrick’s Day potatoes, from the looks of things!

For more funny find Robyn at Hollow Tree Ventures, where she knows she probably shouldn’t be hungry for pudding after this, but PUDDING.

Wire is a fun product to craft with, and truly skilled artists, like professional jeweler Ula of wirewrapped.eu, can make gorgeous things with it like this wire gothic valentine pendant.

In addition to beautifully adorning necks, Ula’s pendants also serve as inspiration to aspiring crafters who want to see what sort of twisted, twirly wire creations they can come up with themselves! That’s exactly what happened with “Goose,” a faithful and funny fan on CraftFail’s Facebook page, who attempted to recreate this intricate heart-shaped bauble herself.

This lovely cupcake bridal gown arrangement, as seen on Bridal Guide, is just perfect for a wedding shower! It’s simple, sweet, and guests can keep eating until long after it’s nothing but a frosted cupcake bridal bikini.

Instagram user @nellysim90 decided to put one together for her best friend’s bridal shower.

A photo posted by nellysim90 (@nellysim90) on Nov 22, 2014 at 3:41pm PST

Not bad! But maybe there were one too many cooks in the kitchen – she got some help from a friend, and it looks like there might have been some disagreement about the best way to apply the icing. Should we stipple? Swirl? Stipple AND swirl? Just left it half-melt until it’s sorta smooth? Maybe if we toss some sprinkles on no one will notice…

I’m sure their friend appreciated the effort; and I’m sure she REALLY appreciated the effort it took to go out and buy a different cake!

Bakerella is the undisputed queen of cake pops. Rightly so! She has a million gorgeous designs, many of which are amazingly intricately detailed, and – oh yeah – she also INVENTED THEM.

But you don’t have to be a professional cake pop expert to make them – heck, according to the internet, almost anyone can do it! Now, we’ve shown you the reality behind Pinterest cake pops before, but that doesn’t keep people’s expectations from soaring sky-high.

Enter Julianna, of Rants From Mommyland fame, who decided not only to make cake pops, but also to plan and orchestrate every other feature of her daughter’s fourth birthday party. And host it at her house. A project she started a whole six days before the party itself.

Or… not. This accidental cake pop alien was the best of the batch, and that was BEFORE she left the refrigerator door open overnight and ruined all the food! (Well, the food that wasn’t already pre-ruined, that is.)

These melting snowman cookies from Land O Lakes recipes are just as adorable as they are delicious. All you need are you favorite sugar cookie dough, icing, some marshmallows, and assorted candy decorations to convince your kids that, since spring is coming and the weather is warming up, we’d better put the Frozen DVD away for a few months or THIS COULD HAPPEN TO OLAF!

Bonus points if you can sell the DVD in a garage sale this summer without them noticing.